74 ANIMAL LIFE UNDER WATER 



otter makes a slide. Personally, I have never 

 seen an otter slide, but W. T. Long gives a very 

 fine description of one in his " Beasts of the 

 Field." This slide was twenty feet high and 

 had been made with much care on one side of a 

 promontory that jutted into the river. Here a 

 pair of otters spent " the better part of a sunny 

 afternoon sliding down a clay bank with endless 

 delight." 



Old Moon described to me how on one occa- 

 sion he tracked an otter for four miles in the 

 snow. At last he came to a smooth, frozen 

 slide on a long bank that sloped right down to 

 the water's edge. On one side the snow was 

 trodden down by the animals as they climbed to 

 the top. It would appear to be a cold form of 

 amusement, flying head first down an icy slide 

 into freezing water, but apparently an otter does 

 not mind the cold, for, as I have stated, those 

 on my pond used to swim about under the ice, 

 though their food was given to them on land. 



In the more populated parts of the British 

 Isles the otter is almost entirely nocturnal in its 

 habits, but in less-frequented areas it is often 

 seen abroad long after sunrise. I have watched 

 an otter kill a grilse on a bright summer morn- 



